Day: July 20, 2012

Since this whole Occupy, income-inequality conversation took center stage last year, we’ve heard over and over again that the rich [the so-called “One Percent”] pay less in taxes than everyone else despite the fact that their income levels are at all-time highs.

Is this true? A new report from the Congressional Budget Office would say “not exactly.”

“Let’s consider income first. Between 2007 and 2009, after-tax earnings by Americans in the top one percent for income fell 37 percent. On a pre-tax basis they fell 36 percent in the same period,” CNBC’s Robert Frank writes.

“That may sound like a minor haircut for One Percenters compared to people who lost their jobs. But when you take into account federal transfers, assistance and taxes paid, the incomes of the bottom 20 percent grew by 3 percent, while it fell a modest 2 percent for the middle 20 percent,” he adds.

Translation: Since the start of the recession, the wealthy have seen their incomes fall 18 times more than the incomes of the middle class.

The mayor of Boston is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant near the city’s “Freedom Trail” because of the company’s stance on gay marriage.

“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Boston Herald Thursday.

“That’s the Freedom Trail. That’s where it all started right here. And we’re not going to have a company, Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail,” he added.

Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press this week that his privately owned company is “guilty as charged” in support of what he called the biblical definition of the family.

Of course, people flipped out and the company was eventually forced to issue an official statement on its position.

“The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender,” the company said in a statement.

“Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”

Facebook is exploding with dozens of fan pages in support of killer James Holmes that blame society for the murderer’s rampage that has killed 12 and wounded 59 in Colorado – and despite several reports to Facebook from outraged users, the social network has not removed the pages.

Comments from Facebook page creators pretending to be “James Holmes” range from expressions of support for the killer to jokes and even calls for more violence.

An unedited posting on one page states:

“Usually when something like this goes down its people LIKE (society) you, who make people go insane.. I say this is a support page for james holmes.

“How you know hes bad person before for the shooting?

“He was a hard working american just like the rest of us.

“SUpport for you james”

Several visitors on each of the pages said they were reporting the content to Facebook and authorities. WND reported the pages to Facebook as well. The social network had not responded to requests for comment at the time of this report.

An Aurora, Colo., man was awoken at 3 a.m. by a family member calling from New York to tell him his ex-wife had been shot. It was unknown at the time where his 6-year-old child was. Both were at the tragic shooting at the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado. Then he learned of the tragic news.

“After three hours of sitting at the children’s hospital in Aurora, I found out my child was dead,” the unnamed man said to KDVR in an interview. “After being thrown in circles and circles and telling me you’ll be able to see her in just a moment, I found out my child is dead.”

After this comment, the man who was facing away from the camera goes silent, shaking his head. Watch the interview:

KDVR reports that the man became enraged at one point and had to be detained by police. His daughter was one of 12 killed in the shootings that occurred around 12:30 a.m. Reports indicate at least 59 were been injured in the scene thus far.

The man has not been admitted to the Aurora Medical Center to see his ex-wife allegedly because of a comment he had made.

“I need to make sure that she’s at least okay. I’ve lost the rest of my family,” he said.

When told the suspected gunman, 24-year-old James Holmes, was still alive, this man said, “Hopefully some people at least have some common courtesy and take care of somebody who has the willpower to murder an innocent child and other innocent people,” he said. “Hopefully the law enforcement has some kind of courtesy and some kind of basic justice.”

Fox News Insider posted a longer version of the heart-breaking interview. Watch it here:

Following ABC’s attempt to tie Aurora shooter James Holmes to the Tea Party, it is not clear that class is in short supply in the media.

And apparently Michael Grunwald of Time Magazine wants there to be less. He’s penned an op ed entitled “Sometimes There’s Nothing Wrong With Politicizing a Tragedy,” in which he defends the idea that politicians ought to use this particular tragedy for their own political gain. Read some highlights below:

I feel terrible about what happened in that movie theater, and I’m agnostic about gun control, but there is nothing wrong with politicizing tragedy.

The talking heads don’t like it, because they think of politics as a silly game about who sang out of tune and whose words can be used against them and whose surrogate undercut whose message, but politics is about life and death and human suffering. At least that’s what it should be about.

If advocates or experts or even politicians think their policy ideas can prevent the next Aurora—by preventing potential killers from obtaining guns, by making sure potential victims can carry guns, or by some other method—then by all means, now is the time to spread the word.[…]

It’s telling that the people who get paid to analyze politics recoil at the notion that its practitioners should connect it to real-life pain. They think they’re covering a sport, an entertainment.